Sunday, January 23, 2011

Life Gets Better

I remember talking to my mentor in AA long ago. I told him I don't know how life can get better.

Financially, technology wise, and my new girlfriend, who later became my wife, I just thought my life could never be this good.

Through listening to Dennis Prager about happiness, I have worked at being a happier person. Dennis says that it's the happy that make the world a better place. And I believe in my Dennis. I have become a happier person, and I hope to become happier the more I exercise those happy muscles. I like smiling.

Yesterday, in my wanderings through LA, of course when you see people, 99.99% are not smiling. Many are just in their everyday mode, and we don't walk around with a smile on our face. I guess we'd all look like a bunch of idiots. But on a fair number of people, when I looked at their faces, I could see a lot of sadness.

The easiest way to be happy is through gratitude. So what is there to be thankful for? Most everything. The mundane like the concrete sidewalk I walk on, the beautiful flowers that adorn my path, to that great ball in the sky that makes all life possible. Everything around me is something to be thankful for.

The line between wealth and poverty is a fine line. From being in debt to being debt free. I am completely debt free, and I learn skills that teaches me that it is not spending money that will make me happy. It's almost as if those in debt have an attitude of screw it, I already owe so much money, it won't matter if I spend money on an expensive meal. Whereas being debt free, I realize my money is my own, and I have the power to choose how I spend my dollars, or if I even want to spend dollars.

When I think about the rich, greed is the farthest thing from their minds. Most rich people's greatest desire is to make the world a better place for their fellow man. Would I want to go into a restaurant and eat and be the only one, while everyone else is on the street begging for scraps? Or would I like everyone else to be in the restaurant enjoying good food and drink along with me?